The Epilogues
by fringeperson
Summary: Two alternate endings for the story A Creation I still don't own any of the characters, and rating based on part 2 of the second ending, the rest is safe.
1. Alternate Ending 1 Complete

A/N: I could put this up as a separate story, but it was originally written as the ending to **A Creation**, it was the spontaneous ending, which I was not happy enough with to actually post as _the_ ending, so I'm putting up alternative endings to that story separately. This is the first.

So it's either** Chapter 9** or **A Final Gift** – which would be a stand-alone story. You decide how you want to think of it. End A/N.

"Muta, don't you get old at all?" Haru asked, straining her eyes to see the large cat as she paused in what would be her final work.

"Course I do, but cat's have nine lives, so until I get to my last one, I stay pretty much the same age," the fat cat explained, eating probably his last meal in the house of Miss Yoshioka.

"Good plan," she said as she bent to scratch him behind the ears.

She had led a good life, her paintings had been very popular, and she had returned to her University as an assessor and sometimes guest lecturer on what it meant to paint. She had talked of the things that motivated her to the students and seen confusion in the eyes of so many. Some lit up though, as her words struck a chord within them, and she spent some extra time with them.

Haru Yoshioka had never married, much to her mother's lamentations, but the earnings from her commissioned pieces had afforded her a large house, and the occasional work that she auctioned off paid for any other little things she wanted. Mostly, she just hung her favourite works on her walls – the very first picture, the one that had a strange life within the frame, had a room all to itself.

A knock at her door drew the old lady's attention from the cat on her kitchen floor and her work.

"Come in, I'm in the kitchen," she called.

"Miss Yoshioka," it was a young man. He carried a briefcase and wore a very smart suit of coal grey, with a fine silk tie of powder blue.

"Ah, Stephen, I'm glad to see you. I want to make sure that my will is in order," Haru said. The lad was a lawyer.

"You leave your house and all that is in it as a memorial to art created from the heart, a sanctuary for artists learning what that means and…" the boy read from the paper until he reached the end of it.

"Add please that any cats that come here should be fed," Haru said, smiling at the fatso she cared so much for. He had told her just that morning that Lune and Yuki were expecting their fifth litter. It occurred to the grey-haired old woman that those two were much more in love than Lune's parents had been, since they had only ever had him.

"Er, yes ma'am," the young man said, adding to the document.

Haru signed it and bid him good day, telling him to take a cup cake with him.

"I'm dying Muta," she told the cat. She hadn't before, she had wanted to wait until it was certain and near before she did. Her tone was matter of fact and not at all searching for sympathy.

He looked at her sharply.

"Says who?" he demanded.

"My doctor," she answered with a laugh in her voice. "I could be dead tomorrow, or perhaps next week, end of the month at the very latest. Would you fetch the Baron and Toto for me? I want the chance to say goodbye."

Muta was off like a shot. Surprised, the old woman checked the bowl he had left – it was cleaned out. Well, at least that explained why he hadn't kept eating after she had told him, but he was usually more sensible about not moving too quickly on a full stomach.

Refocussing on the task at hand, Haru took up her brush again, and swept it gently down the surface.

"He's really a softie you know, underneath that gruff outer exterior, he has a heart of gold," she told her work. She had been telling this last one her life story from the moment she began, starting with her parents, through her child hood, just the day before, she had recounted the entire tale of her adventures in the Cat Kingdom.

Taking out a little mirror, Haru studied her eyes behind the spectacles she now had to wear. She mixed the paints and took to task; the eyes were the last things she was doing.

It was done.

"Do you see all these?" she asked of this, her last work, walking through her large house with it in her hand. "These are all a small piece of how I feel about the Baron, a mere snapshot of a thousand emotions."

Through the entire house she went, explaining the story of every picture, hearing the songs and feeling the touch all over again as she went, listening to the whispered words of two who were in love, even though they couldn't ever be together.

The garden was the last place she went, walking between the roses and lavender, down to the bottom of the garden, where she rested on a stone bench.

"But you aren't like those paintings," she said, looking at the last thing she would ever pour her heart into. "You aren't a restricted snapshot of an emotional memory. You, my kitten, are Haru Yoshioka, and you will be able to love the Baron as I could only dream to," said the old woman, giving that last, vital ingredient to her creation that it might have life – a name.

"Haru!" a voice cried from the top of the garden.

The old woman recognised it, the cat-like doll in her hands did not, but turned towards it even so, something within her telling her that she should, a memory that the old woman had given her.

"I'm in the garden," she called back, a sad smile on her face. She had not told Muta all of the truth: she was dying, yes, but she knew for certain that she would not even see the sunset on this day. Her body told her this more certainly than her doctor did. She had called him earlier that day; made an appointment that he should come by for afternoon tea and a last checkup.

"Haru," the Baron said, running down the garden path.

"That's you now, kitten," Haru said to the doll beside her. "I just wanted to say goodbye, and now I have, don't stay and watch an old woman die."

The Baron stared at the old woman. It was hard to believe that she had once been the young woman, so full of life, that he had fallen in love with, and his heart ached to see her like this. When she turned to a small figure beside her, however, the Baron caught his breath. There was his Haru, the kitten from the painting that hung on his wall.

"I won't say goodbye," he said, taking the hand of the kitten. "I'm not really losing you," he added, looking up at the old woman even as he held the girl.

The old woman smiled and told them to go, with her blessings. She kissed each of them between the ears and wept for their happiness, she loved the Baron so dearly.

Toto hopped up on the bench and stared at the old woman, utterly disbelieving, until she kissed him also on his beak and asked him to take care of her kitten.

Muta said that he would stay until nightfall, and Haru thanked him, shooing the creations away back to the refuge, back to the Bureau. They had no business facing death, as those who lived mortal lives all had to face death.

When at last she collapsed, and there was no life left in her, Muta wept in the privacy of her garden, mewling wretchedly that such a beautiful life had to come to such an end. At the Bureau, however, there was happiness. Certainly, there was melancholy at the thought of Haru Yoshioka passing, but the Baron was finally able to hold _his_ Haru, and she loved him as her maker had shown her how.

So it was that Juliet died, but Romeo did not, for Juliet had left for him another, just like herself, but that was able to love him as he deserved – fully, and without hindrance or reserve. How could there be anything but happiness?


	2. Alternate Ending 2 Part 1

A/N: The story **A Creation** was left on rather a cliff-hanger of an ending, in fact it was left on no ending at all. I couldn't pick one, so I'm putting up all sorts of various endings that it could have, this is the second of such endings, and flows much better from the story than the original ending did. End A/N.

**Chapter 9 **or **Art of the Heart**

"I _like_ this one!" Toto said loudly, drawing the attention of the girl and figurine as he cackled and cawed, laughing at the world in general, but particularly at fat cat beside him.

Haru wandered closer to her friends to see which picture had captured their attentions. "Oops," she said. "I'd forgotten about _Rehearsal for a Duel_." It was for sale, one of the very few she had done that was. It was of two men pretending to fight, or at least, that was how it had begun – someone had said something at some point, and the duellists faces were no longer the calm masks that they had once been, rather, they were contorted with rage.

The fighters were men, but to anyone who knew Muta and Toto, there was a _definite_ resemblance. Haru had even put Toto in the tree, mocking Muta who was hissing up from beneath… it was very obviously her two friends fighting, in two different shapes. She hadn't meant to have the fight so very far in, just beginning, but it had become a later moment, and the duellist resembling the crow had the upper hand, being of a slimmer physique than his opponent.

"Well, I'm sorry Toto, but it's already been sold," Haru said, pointing to the little red sticker on the panel that detailed all the intricacies of the work.

"That's all right Haru, I'll just carry the memory of it with me forever," the crow assured her, a smile crooked on his beak.

"Excuse me Miss Haru," a crackling male voice called out from the next hall over, causing everyone to turn and look.

"Oh, hey Joe," Haru replied, smiling at the pimple-ridden and ever-so-slightly nerdy guy who was the guard on duty for the exhibition. "Want me out of here now?" she asked; moving so that he wouldn't be able to see Toto, or the Baron in her arms.

"If you wouldn't mind," he said. "And could you take the cat with you? I don't want to have to explain to any of your classmates that your pet messed up their work just because you forgot to hold the door for it."

"No problem Joe," said the artist heading for the closest exit, Toto and Muta close behind her, the Baron still in her arms.

"Oh, Miss Haru, I was wondering… that little portrait of the two cats in love…" the guard said, running a large hand through mousy curls.

"What about it?"

"How much do you want for it?" the older guy asked all in a rush.

"For the last time, it's not for sale Joe, I don't care how much of your father's money you're willing to give me for it. It's a present for a very dear friend of mine. I'm sorry," Haru said, collecting the small picture from the wall and taking it with her out the door.

"That's not allowed!" he called after her.

"It's my work, and I'll put it back in the morning. I'm not sure that I trust you with it," explained Haru, making sure that her friends were out the door before she closed it.

"I take it that he has made several offers for the miniature?" the Baron asked as they all walked to the residency where Haru was staying… well, Haru and Muta walked. Toto flew and Baron was now riding on Haru's shoulder.

"Yes," Haru said, barely able to see the painting by the street lights as she neared the door. "_His Kitten_ is very popular, with everyone, but Joe was raised with money, so he thinks he can buy everything that he wants, it's been difficult getting him to understand that this time, he can't have it."

"His kitten?" Muta asked. He sat down beside her feet while she unlocked the door.

"That's the name of this picture I painted for the Baron," Haru said, showing fat cat and bird as they made themselves at home in her habitat. "Everything has to have a title," she added, rolling her eyes. It was obvious that she didn't much care for putting titles to things.

"Oh, that's lovely," Toto said, genuinely touched by the emotion he saw between the figures rendered in the pigments.

"Thank you," answered Haru, passing Muta a tissue. The fat cat was crying, but he seemed surprised to find out.


	3. Alternate Ending 2 Part 2

**Chapter 10**

"Hey there!" Haru called, walking through the arch of the refuge with a picnic basket in hand.

"Haru!" Muta yelled, barrelling out of the Bureau. "HE COVERED IT!" the marshmallow wailed indignantly.

"Huh?" she asked, not understanding. When the Baron left the double doors behind and entered the square, however, realisation dawned. "Oh, my painting."

"HE _COVERED_ IT!" Muta reiterated, still at the top of his lungs.

"Muta, you and Toto help yourselves to the picnic, I'd like a private word with the Baron please," Haru said as she petted the fat cat and dropped the basket beside him. She was looking at the figurine, however.

"Please, come in," he said, going in first.

Seated on the trunk once again, holding a tiny cup of tea between her fingers, Haru sipped delicately before she turned to her host.

"Something upset you?" she asked.

He waved a hand at a sheet on the wall; it was obviously covering a painting. Her painting, she knew. He nodded at her questioning glance and Haru tugged away the cover. She blinked a couple of times.

"That isn't how I painted it," she said at last. The artist stared for a little while longer before she sighed and covered it herself. The young woman knelt properly on the floor in front of the Baron. "It hurts now, doesn't it?"

He moved fast, he didn't want to be afraid of what he was doing, so he did it without letting his mind stop him. He threw his arms around Haru's neck and he started to kiss all of her that he could reach.

Haru felt herself melt in his touch, and fumbled her large fingers over his small form. Then something went _fffffffftt-op!_ Everything felt odd – liquid, but solid, like everything was jelly, only not cold, and it was twisting and pulling itself out of shape, then back into shape again with another _pop!_

Haru checked herself over, making sure that she was still who she was when she walked in – she was still human, completely, so she relaxed and looked up. The first thing she saw was that the drape had come off the painting, and that it was back to normal, the way she had painted it.

The young woman shook her head in amazement at the strangeness of the world and turned from it to see if the Baron was alright. She nearly jumped when she saw him, and gasped audibly when she realised that she was standing straight in his house without her head through the roof. She had failed to notice that she was now only as tall as the Baron was, when she had first checked herself over.

What she had seen instantly was that, standing before her, was not Baron the wooden feline gentleman, but the figure she had painted all those years ago, before she had received her degree, before she had even begun her uni course.

"Baron?" she asked, wanting to be absolutely certain that it really _was_ him.

"Haru?" he returned, looking up at her. There was something in his emerald eyes, like fear and uncertainty and hope all mixed up. "I'm human… I'm alive," he said.

"Still only one foot high," Haru pointed out, but she couldn't keep the smile from her face. What did it matter that they were small? They could be together now! She rushed him, as he had her, and wrapped her arms about his neck as she had done when he came to save her from the Cat Kingdom.

"Do you take me to be your loving wedded husband, no matter what?" he asked in between kissing her fiercely. There was no way they were going to find a clergyman that would be able to marry them, so the Baron decided that he would do.

"Yes," she answered succinctly, kissing him back with all her own passion. "Take me as your wife?" she asked, almost unable to get the sentence out she was so busy doing what she had dreamt of for so long.

The Baron swept her up in his arms and, still kissing her everywhere, took her to his barely used bedroom, where he dumped her on the bed.

"Oh yes," he said, covering her body with his as he leant over her and kissed her again. "I now declare you _mine_."

Haru slipped his trousers off while he removed her shirt, and she wrapped her arms around him, holding herself off the bed just a little as he dealt with her bra. She took the opportunity to whisper in his ear: "Except for when you're mine," and she felt him chuckle. She kissed him again.

A/N: Okay, so I had to get a little raunchy with them eventually, just to get it out of my system… I think it backfired, now I want to get explicit with them… **BUT!** I _stopped_ rather than go on for the rest of their wedding night.


End file.
